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Digital literacy program teaches children how to use internet safely
Courtesy of FreepikAs young children get exposed to the internet at a much younger age than ever before, digital literacy education has become more essential than ever
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Courtesy of Freepik
As young children get exposed to the internet at a much younger age than ever before, digital literacy education has become more essential than ever.
Recognizing this urgent need, while marking Safer Internet Day on Feb. 11, American multinational technology company Google, NGO Yayasan Sejiwa, Indonesia Child Protection (ID-COP) and the Education and Culture Ministry recently launched the Tangkas Berinternet digital literacy campaign.
The campaign is part of Google’s global initiative called Be Awesome Internet. In Indonesian, the phrase tangkas berinternet means to be agile while using the internet. The digital literacy campaign targets children aged 6 to 12, and also involves training their adult teachers, parents and concerned circles alike to help children learn how to use the internet safely and constructively.
The campaign features materials and modules that parents, teachers and educators can use to improve their children’s digital literacy, along with interactive games, all of which have been modified into the Indonesian language and context.
Parents and educators can access the materials at beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/id_id.
According to Yayasan Sejiwa founder Diena Haryana, the curriculum covers five main lessons children need to learn to navigate the internet safely.
These lessons are: smart internet, which focuses on how to leave a positive track record through their online activities; careful internet, on how to differentiate reliable information from hoaxes and fake news; tough internet, on how to create a strong and safe password; wise internet, on how to spread kindness online and stand up for people being bullied; and finally, courageous internet, on having the courage to consult adults about their online activities when in doubt.
These pillars of digital literacy seek to address real-life instances of unsafe internet use by children encountered across Indonesia.
“The role of parents is vitally important in digital literacy education, but unfortunately many parents are not digitally literate themselves. They can use the internet but do not know how to avoid the negative impacts it can bring about. Worse, some parents use the internet as a digital pacifier to calm and occupy their children,” Diena said.
She added that some parents even encouraged internet use at too young an age to their children as a way to bond.
“One of the extreme cases I have encountered was in Manado, North Sulawesi, where we met a 18-month-old infant already addicted to the internet. The child’s father was obsessed with the internet and had shown YouTube videos to the child from the time they were very small,” she said.
Diena added that besides internet addiction, which impacted children’s day-to-day functioning by keeping them awake at night and distracting them from their studies, children could also access pornography or fall victim to sexual predators and pedophiles online.
“When these children engage in online video chats, sometimes adults will ask them to take off their clothes before secretly taking pictures of them and spreading these pictures online, in a practice called grooming,” Diena said, adding that Tangkas Berinternet also helped children to be more careful when interacting with strangers online, and encouraged them to report signs of danger should they encounter predators on
the internet.
Recognizing the vital role of adults in digital literacy education, on Feb. 11, the campaign committee also organized a training-for-trainers program on the Tangkas Berinternet modules, materials and games, targeting parents, educators and child protection activists, among others.
The events were attended by about 70 adults.
One of them, 27-year-old Andika Zakiy Nugroho Kadir, a program officer with Yayasan Sejiwa who often facilitates trainings for children, said he was surprised that as adults, many participants including himself were not aware about basic internet protection strategies. The most common being password protection.
“For instance, many adults still use the same password to manage their different online accounts,” Andika said.
Meanwhile, Wulansari Ardianingsih, 31, an educational psychologist, said she found the material on finding credible sources of information particularly interesting.
“For instance, the address of credible websites always starts with the code https, not http. In addition, secure websites are always indicated with a padlock logo on the left side of the website address,” she said.
Wulansari said the workshop had given her a better understanding of how to handle internet-related cases she often encountered in her practice.
Meanwhile, Andika said the interactive nature of the games and materials made it easier for adults and children to partake in collaborative learning.
“This collaborative method is good, so children won’t feel that the adults are preaching at them from on high, which can hinder learning,” Andika, who often trains children in Yayasan Sejiwa’s program, said.
